Man of Steel

A description of the movie's first teaser trailer recently hit the internet, but the site that actually first reported it is now saying it's fake. So, uh, probably best to just ignore this one, though you can check out the description here, which features a surprising amount of Clark Kent using telekinesis instead of any of the powers that are, you know, actually associated with Superman. The latest rumor is that a brief teaser for the film will be attached to The Dark Knight Rises — which really would seem like the only logical thing — when it opens July 20. [Cosmic Book News]

The Amazing Spider-Man

Here's an international version of the recently released theatrical trailer, featuring some new footage. [The Cineaste's Lament]

Pacific Rim

Star Idris Elba, whose credits already include the twin apexes of modern entertainment in The Wire and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, discusses the creatures and the use of CGI in Guillermo del Toro's monster-fighting epic:

Advertisement

"It's hard to say. Godzilla would throw out the wrong sort of image, I think. We are talking about some big MF-ers...There's a lot of actuality in this one because he's created huge sets. I mean, we've taken over four sets in Pinewood in Toronto and built a lot of the stuff that you might see. Yes, there is huge CGI I'm sure, but we built a lot of stuff too."

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Here's an introduction that producer Tim Burton provided for a recent screening event.

Frankenstein

Real Steel director Shawn Levy revealed a bunch of details for his planned Frankenstein movie. He says the budget needed to do the movie right is around $70-80 million, and that Chronicle writer Max Landis has provided him an "awesome" screenplay to work from. He also says Aaron Eckhart's I, Frankenstein movie, despite being a very different take, has put some pressure on him "to cast the living hell out of our Frankenstein", which I sort of hope means Hugh Jackman playing Dr. Frankenstein, the monster, and Igor. In fact, Levy suggests that the two key characters here are Dr. Frankenstein and Igor, with the monster apparently less of a direct focus. Finally, Levy explained how he would approach shooting the movie:

"In the case of Frankenstein, my whole approach is based on a mo-cap SimulCam playback so that it's not a dude with scars on his face. It's not just kind of latex and a costume; it would be a motion-capture performance of the monster — I can give away maybe not too much by saying there's more than one in our version — and then I would go to Europe, shoot the movie, do scenes with the real actors and I would be able to see the motion-captured monster in real time due to SimulCam, so yes that is our technological VFX paradigm for Frankenstein."

Fantastic Voyage

Shawn Levy also revealed his plans for his Fantastic Voyage reboot, which is currently undergoing some rewrites on the script:

Advertisement

Advertisement

"We all remember the original or we have a dim memory, but it was like miasmic views out a submarine window. It was like ‘Oh globules of blood cells!' My whole thing with Jim Cameron who's the producer on that movie is like, let's get out of the boat; let's be tactile and hands-on. Part of the reason why the budget for my Fantastic Voyage is not small is that we're talking about free dives in the body with real full-scale underwater sets, so it's not just looking at the shit, maybe it's climbing up the fucking spine. It's real, full-scale underwater 3D practical sets."

The Colony

Laurence Fishburne and Kevin Zegers — who I hopefully don't have to tell you was the star of the original Air Bud movies (leaving aside Air Bud himself, of course) — are reportedly close to signing on for this low-budget Canadian sci-fi film from director Jeff Renfroe. Fishburne and Zegers would play members of a group of survivors living out the next Ice Age underground, while facing attacks from feral cannibals. [The Hollywood Reporter]

After Earth

Jaden Smith released this photo of himself wearing the costume for M. Night Shymalan's new movie, in which Jaden and Will Smith play a semi-estranged son and father who crash land on a desolate planet. [First Showing]

In Your Eyes

Joss Whedon has reportedly cast the two leads for his planned low-budget indie that is described as "a metaphysical love story about two seemingly polar opposites who are deeply connected in ways neither could have ever imagined." Cloverfield actor Michael Stahl-David will reportedly play Dylan, "a boyish-looking man who served time in jail for robbery when he refused to rat on his accomplices", while Meek's Cutoff actress Zoe Kazan will play Rebecca, "an attractive but skinny and slightly awkward woman, who is married to an older doctor." The movie finds Dylan living in New Mexico and Rebecca in Connecticut, and then the exigencies of fate start drawing them together. Mad Men actress Abigail Spencer also recently revealed she is in the movie. [Deadline]

G.I. Joe: Retaliation

Director Jon Chu provides this rather charmingly straightforward explanation as to how he decided which characters should be the movie's main focus:

Advertisement

Sponsored

"I loved Snake Eyes, of course, and I love Road Block. Those two to me were the coolest duo out there. To me, it was Roadblock and Snake Eyes together that was the kickass team. It was a dream to be like, 'All right, now we really get to make Roadblock the guy. Who would be the perfect Roadblock?' Of course, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and being able to have Ray Park return as Snake Eyes and have them be on two different adventures all across the world is awesome. As any 'Joe' adventure is, it spans the world, and it's an adventure that ranges from you're in Pakistan one second to Japan the next second and Korea another one, Washington, D.C. You're definitely jumping around and it also collides at a certain point."

Chu also adds some new details on the new Cobra Commander:

Advertisement

"To me, Cobra is one of the most iconic villains of all time. I just wanted to know that was him. I wanted to make him more badass than ever. We got to design him from the ground up. Creating the mask, we went through 35 revisions and how his voice was going to be, how reflective it was going to be. He's definitely a huge presence, and I can't wait. I'm sort of trying to hide a little bit, so people when they come don't know what to expect from Cobra, which is sort of the fun part of it."

Battleship

Here's a behind-the-scenes featurette on the board game adaptation in which the navy fights aliens for some reason.

Director Peter Berg discusses the casting of Rihanna, who plays Petty Officer Raikes in the movie for some reason. (Everything about this movie can best be described as happening "for some reason.") He explains:

Advertisement

"She was great. She has a very strong part. I was surprised no one had ever thought to hire Rihanna. I was a huge fan of her videos. Obviously she's sexy, but she had this real intensity. I'm like, 'Someone's going to get her.' "

TMNT

Battle: Los Angeles and Wrath of the Titans director Jonathan Liebesman is reportedly in negotiations to direct the umpteenth attempt to make Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles an even vaguely viable film franchise again. [Variety]

Breaking Dawn: Part II

Animatronics and special makeup supervisor John Rosengrant discusses the life-size replica of Kristen Stewart they created in order to capture the part of the notorious birth scene where Bella appears to be extremely emaciated:

Advertisement

"It's very hybrid, the approach. We tried to shape the whole Bella, what she looks like emaciated and all that, but it's also digitally augmented, and that was from the get-go, this was going to be a hybrid-type effect. It was creepy when we created the look of her, in a good way. I was actually shocked that that was the edict and I think that is maybe [credit] to Bill Condon as the director, wanting to make something like that real because the previous movies didn't strike me that they would embrace something like this."

Beauty and the Beast

Here's some promo art for the recently announced Beauty and the Beast adaptation from Silent Hill director Chrisophe Gans. The movie is set to star Black Swan's Vincent Cassel and Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol actress Lea Seydoux. [ShockTillYouDrop]

Doctor Who

I can't shake the suspicion that we're jumping at shadows here, but "A Girl in the Fireplace" actress Sophia Myles - who has been the center of a bunch of recent rumors that she would be the Doctor's new companion — tweeted that she was meeting Doctor Who Magazine editor Tom Spilsbury for a "major Dr Who chat this afternoon"...and somehow this is being interpreted as some sort of confirmation that she is indeed taking on the role. That seems more than a little overboard, and this is really all built on a couple of quite possibly innocuous tweets by Myles and Steven Moffat. I'd suggest not putting any faith in this until we hear something even remotely substantial. [Life, Doctor Who, and Combom]

Game of Thrones

A set report in the magazine SciFiNow reveals some details for season two. Here are the highlights, courtesy of Winter Is Coming:

Advertisement

- The Blackwater battle will feature a very clever aquatic battering ram. Basically it's on a boat with rib-like supports sticking out the top. When the boat beaches, the soldiers unpack the battering ram, spin the boat upside down, reconnect the ram and then run it up to the gates with the hull of the boat acting as cover from missile fire.
-HBO mocked up a section of King's Landing wall for the Blackwater. The wall is 20 metres away from a stretch of water, allowing skiffs full of soldiers to disembark under heavy arrow, ballistae and boiling oil fire from the walls.
- There is a set of ‘bone armour' featuring in S2 which will make ‘readers of the books clap their hands in delight'. Cersei has a set of ornamental and elegant, ‘Valkyrie-like' armour.

Also, the article describes season two as "the season of battles", with episode nine's Battle of Blackwater the sixty-minute highlight. [Winter Is Coming]

Supernatural

Producer Robert Singer provided this preview for Friday's episode, "Repo Man", which features the return of Mark Pellegrino as Lucifer.

Arrow

Katie Cassidy, who is probably best known around here for playing Ruby on Supernatural (I'm just assuming there isn't a big contingent for the Melrose Place reboot), has reportedly been cast in the CW's Green Arrow pilot as Laurel, "a young legal clinic attorney who shares a romantic past" with Green Arrow alter ego Oliver Queen. [SpoilerTV]